Friday, April 26, 2013

Takashi Murakami (February 1, 1962)

Tan Tan Bo Puking - a.k.a. Gero Tan

2002

I've decided to introduce a very popular new style today: Superflat. Superflat was created by Takashi Murakami as a way of modernizing the Japanese art world. In most cases the influences of the various works are not rooted in classical Japanese art, such asUkiyo-e (works like Daruma, below, being rare exceptions), but in Japanese popular animations and comics. In fact, though I haven't included examples, they are often indistinguishable from Japanese pop culture pieces by any standards; if you're inclined, I've linked to one such piece: see Miss KO². As a Pop Artist of sorts, he is often compared to Warhol, but I think the comparison is very loose at best, as Warhol tended to utilize pop icons, whether people or brands, in a clean fashion within an experimental composition, while Murakami tends to manipulate popular Japanese animaton and cartoon motifs and characters in creating bizarre and shocking effects. Murakami, if anything, is closer to Lichtenstein, but even that is a stretch, as Lichtenstein was far subtler in his approach. And I don't know whether I would even say that he is very unique within a wide scope, though he certainly is unique as a founder within the art world.